Passing

This chapter was a little fun to write since I get to use places I've actually been to set the story in. This chapter is rated R for violence.

Manitou Springs

We drove into town in the same van Kit originally picked me up in. Manitou Springs turned out to be a quaint little town set right up against the mountains. Kit explained to me that the town had gained its fame from the various springs that welled up there and the town had been a center of the health spa movement at its height. Nowadays though the springs had mostly been cemented over and all but one of the spas closed. The town was in a bit of depression but the people held on. Hopes for a revival lived on as Kit explained, which was what prompted this first area art and crafts fair with anticipation of becoming an annual event.

We spent the morning visiting the various booths and displays. I fell in love with a quilt that had a pattern of wolves howling against a full moon. Kit seemed very amused by my interest and insisted despite my protests on buying it for me.
“A service we provide to all our guests,” he said with a wink.

~~~

Kit went to put the quilt in the van while I waited. I went to watch the concert taking place on the nearby park stage. Before I realized it I was boxed in. The planners either underestimated the turnout for the festival or didn’t realize the size of the crowd that would want to see the performance. The small park the stage was set in was bound on one side by a deep ditch, the swift spring feed creek at the bottom, and the walled in courtyards of several hotels and spas on the other. The crowd was soon standing shoulder to shoulder.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and a thick yellow foul smelling smoke filled the concert area. Screams of panic filled the air as people rushed the park exits. I found my self being carried along by the crowd. My own fear of being crushed was overcome when I saw a small girl fall ahead of me. Fearing she would be crushed, I grabbed the girl up and pushed my way into a doorway. The door had a board across it but the door lock was broken. Cuddling the little girl in my arms, I ducked inside.

Inside was a cobweb filled lobby of what had once been a fancy spa. I laid the little girl on a dusty couch and wiped her tears.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
She nodded her head slowly.
“Hi, I’m Melody. What’s your name?”
“Michele Thompson.”
“All right Michele, I’m going to see if there is some water to clean up your pretty little face. Will you be alright for a second?”
Again she gave me a little nod, with a trace of a smile this time. I grinned back and started checking the doors off the lobby trying to find a washroom.

I stepped into a room facing the park and heard laughter. Several boys in the late teens to early twenties were in the room looking at the mayhem outside. They all wore leather jackets with a snarling cat on the back with the word ’Wildcats’ over it.
“Ha, look at them running around. That stink bomb you rigged really did the trick, John.”
Suddenly I was grabbed from behind.
“Hey John look what I caught,” a boy’s voice behind me said.
John walked over to where I was struggling against the boy who pushed me into the room. There was a small click as he put a switchblade knife under my chin to force me to look at him.
“Are you alone?”
My fear for myself was suddenly replaced with fear for Michelle.
“Yes,” I said too quickly.
He nodded for one of the others to search.
“My boyfriend will be here any minute,” I lied trying to distract them.

“Heh! In that mess out there I doubt he even knows where you are.” John said leaning his face close to mine.
“Geesh John, she’ll squeal to the Sheriff about us.” One of the other boys said.
“Now you wouldn’t do that would you Red?” John said easily lifting me out of the other‘s arms.
“No,” I squeaked. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“That’s good, because it would be very bad for you!” He said throwing me down onto a couch.
“And just in case you’re thinking of changing your mind, I think you need a sample of what you’re going to get if you do.” John said.
He took off his jacket and started unbuttoning his shirt.
“NO!” I whimpered.
He slipped off his shirt and leaning over me grabbed my face and kissed me while fondling my breast through my blouse. Panic filled me.
“NO! NO!” I screamed scratching at his face.

He stepped back and putting his hand to his face. It came away with blood from the scratches.
“You bitch!” He yelled and backhanded me.
I fell against the wooden frame of the couch and the world exploded in pain as my head hit something.
I struggled to stay up but my feet wouldn't hold me. I felt something warm dripping down my face. The world was swirling and darkness closed in around me.

“Melody!”
I heard someone call my name but I couldn't respond. There were several more clicks of switchblades opening.
“You picked the wrong girl to rescue pretty boy.” I heard John say.
There was a deep throated growl.
“What the hell is that?” One of the boys yelled.
The growling grew louder and screams filled the room as the blackness took me.

~~~
Words penetrated the darkness.
“...the trouble you caused?”
“Keh, he deserved it.”
“That's beside the point. Donel has the situation in hand but you must be more careful. How is the girl?”
“She will be alright. I brought a fresh supply of water from the spring.”
“Alright, the Lady says to go ahead with your plans for the day if she is up to it. The sooner she puts this behind her the better.”
“Yes Wise Elder.”

Darkness closed in again
I opened my eyes and found Kit sitting next to me.
“Welcome back,” he said.
I looked around. I was lying on the back seat of the van which was folded out into a bed.
“What happened?”
“You ran into some local gang. When I came looking for you, they ran away. The police caught them outside the building. They won’t hurt you again.”
He said the last with a tone that suggested more than just the iron bars of the police were behind the promise.

I reached up to feel my head wound but couldn’t find much more than a sore spot.
“It seemed a lot worse than it was,” Kit said. “I cleaned it up. Here drink this; it will make you feel better.”
He handed me an Army surplus canteen and I took a drink. The water inside tasted good and I found myself suddenly feeling much better.
“You must be starved,” Kit said standing up and holding out his hand. “Let’s go get lunch and I’ll show you the most fun place in Manitou Springs.”

Lunch turned out to be hamburgers and fries at an open air snack stand by the river. As Kit went to the window to get our orders, I overheard two girls talking at the next table.
“Mary’s brother is deputy and she said they came screaming out the building and begged to be arrested. They found Johnny Tillman inside looking like he had been fighting grizzly bear or something.”
“Yea, I heard he is going to live but he was tore up pretty bad. What do you…?”

Kit came back with the food and I wasn’t able to hear the rest. I was famished and made short work of the burger, fries and shake. As we finished, I looked at Kit thoughtfully.
“Kit, what did you say happened to those boys again?”
Kit paused in wolfing down his French fries to answer.
“Like I said, I came looking for you and they ran away. I guess I scared them.”
I looked closer at the boy as he finished the last of his shake. I found it hard to imagine this skinny teenager intimidating a hardened gang member at all, much less sending them screaming in terror to the cops.
I started to ask more when he stood up and gathered up the empty baskets.
“Come on,” he said.

After dropping the baskets at the counter, he led me not out to the street but into the open space behind the patio. There was an open air mall area there of small shops. Most of them were home to a large penny arcade filled with the sounds of pinball and other games. Kit turned into the first building which was filled with skeeball lanes and prizes. I watched a handful of kids playing the games as Kit hopped over to the counter and came back with two cups filled with coins.
“This is the most fun place in town?” I asked.
“Yea!” He said handing me a cup.

I enjoyed myself immensely, completely forgetting the terror of the morning. Two hours, several hundred skeeballs and two empty coin cups later, we combined all our tickets and got a little stuffed buffalo. Kit gave him to me as a ‘memento’ of our day. I named him Buff, because he looked so big and strong for such a little guy. Out of money, we headed back to van and the resort.

As we drove back I looked in the cabinets in the back of the van for the quilt I had bought earlier. I found it but first I found a pile of torn clothes, covered in dark stains. That was when I realized that Kit wasn’t wearing the same clothes he had that morning. The torn outfit looked remarkably like what he had been wearing. I closed the door, my mind not wanting to speculate on what the dark reddish stains were.

~~~

The sun was setting by time we reached Spirit Peak. The heat of the day dissipated quickly in sharp temperature differences typical of the mountains. I stopped and leaned against a rock wall that marked the perimeter to the lodge yard. I looked at the red bands of sunlight peaking out through a gap in heavy overcast sky, turning the cloud bottoms bright orange.
“Pretty,” I said.
Kit sniffed at the air.
“There is rain, maybe even snow in those clouds.”
“Hump, you have no romance.” I said and shivered a little at the chill in the air. I had worn a sundress because the last few days had been so warm and now goosebumps sprang up on my bare arms.

I felt warm arms encircle me.
“Cold?” He asked.
I turned looked into his green eyes. They had the oddest flecks of gold in them. Suddenly, I didn’t fill so cold anymore.
“Not here.”
He looked deep into my eyes and slowly leaned me back against the wall down to kiss me.

It felt so right but as the kiss deepened and his arms pulled me close a panic rose in me. Suddenly Kit was no longer there. My mind was filled with the images of Eric and Johnny forcing themselves on me threatening to….

“NO!” I screamed and grabbing a loose stone from the wall struck out. I felt my rock hit hard followed by a startled yelp and the body holding me falling away. Then I ran and ran and ran.